changing our world a little bit at a time

Shaving

Since I went back to work all of my blog posts have started with an excuse. It’s been a really hard few months balancing work and family. I also love running and I feel that I’m finally getting my fitness back after bringing baby-monster into the world. Any spare time has been dedicated to that and I’ve needed the wonderful stress busting benefits getting a bit of exercise provides. To add to all this Baby-Monster decided to become a competently bipedal human on the cusp of her first birthday and no element of our house has been safe since.

However, I am proud to say that, even if my internet presence has been neglected, our eco efforts haven’t been. I feel like we’re moving forward as a family unit with quite a few of these projects now. We are avoiding plastic where we can and recycling and reusing when we can’t. We’re more aware of where our food comes from and the impact it has on the world. We’re starting to put bring ethical considerations into our purchases and question if they are purchases we need to make at all.

I’m super proud of my extended family who have all agreed to come on board with a Secret Santa for Christmas this year. Not only will this save us all money but it has renewed our commitment to the importance of family time together over material possessions and consumerism. We are aiming to buy memories and not things. We’re going to put the money we save into spending more time visiting each other.

I digress back to the point of this post. Another small step that can easily be taken to reduce your impact on the natural world. Many Zero Wasters (yes this is now a term for people who try to avoid creating any waste at all), would argue that shaving is pretty unnecessary. I certainly wrestled with my conscience on this one as to whether, as a woman, it was pure vanity or even an aspect of female repression that I feel so horrified by my own hairy legs or armpits. I’m happy to let my hair look a bit manky towards the end of the week to save the planet, so why not my legs?

Whatever it is, I don’t feel ready to let go of a razor just yet. So I endeavoured to purchase a metal safety razor to replace my plastic disposable ones. I have to admit I was a bit terrified by the purchase of this. I’d buy the wrong one and look a bit daft. I didn’t really feel I knew what I was doing.

I needn’t have worried. It’s actually pretty easy. Unfortunately my local shops didn’t have any in so I had to resort to Amazon to purchase this one. Please let me know if you have a more ethical option for future purchases. You need to buy blades too, although there will probably be one included. I’ve actually had mine since August and I’ve been using it in conjunction with my last remaining disposables.

I’ll admit, it took me a couple of attempts to screw it together properly. But once that was sorted I was away! I bought special soap as these razors do not have the gel strip that disposables have. To be honest, as long as you’re careful and wet shave it doesn’t seem hugely necessary. It’s heavier in hand that plastic disposables and you do need to take your time with it and not rush. But I’m happy with the results and pleased to have another plastic item removed from our bin.

So if you haven’t settled on a Christmas prezzie yet, why not ask Santa for one of these?